Disney surpassed Apple as the top brand in the 2019 Brand Intimacy Study compiled by New York Branding Agency MBLM.

MBLM Managing Partner Mario Natarelli explained that while Apple tries to grow its user base with its shift to services, Disney is resonating by engaging audiences with content.

“I think there is some of that cloud over Apple: Can they create another sort of home run successful platform like the iPhone or iPad? So that certainly is factoring in,” Natarelli told Yahoo Finance’s YFI AM (video above).

He added that the biggest reason for Disney taking the top slot involved “our need for escapism these days — what's in the media, what's in the news — is causing us to want to move in towards these entertainment and media brands.”

But how does MBLM, and other companies like it, measure the ways consumers interact with the brand?

“We ask them a series of questions to mention the characteristics of how they bond with the brand,” Natarelli explained. “Then we see what kind of intensity there is in that relationship.”

The more intimate you are with a brand, "the more willing you are to spend, the less you're willing to live without it,” he said.

Natarelli said Apple, Amazon, and Disney succeed by surrounding the customer with a variety of different product and services.

"We do see young brands moving aggressively up — like You-Tube for example — which is now in the Top 10,” he noted, adding that YouTube outperforms brands including its parent company Google because “it does better with younger audiences.”

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